Libya mission carries limited risks for Canada

Joining Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the table at what might be called the Libyan Intervention Summit in Paris on Saturday was United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan.

The two men have recently had sharp differences arising from a dispute between Canada and the UAE over civil aviation traffic rights that resulted in the Canadian air force being kicked out of a base in Dubai late last fall.

But this unpleasantness has apparently now been put aside, at least temporarily. Fighter pilots from the two countries may fly combat missions in the same theatre of operations as part of a UN-sanctioned coalition that has ostensibly been designed to protect Libyan civilians from Moammar Gadhafi’s military.

With the hard lessons that have been learned from Iraq and Afghanistan in mind, none of the principal parties that have gathered to attack Gadhafi’s regime want the kind of mission creep that morphs into nation building.

That, mercifully, will not be a question that Harper or his government will have to confront. With only six fighter jets and one warship deployed to the Mediterranean, Canada’s participation will carry limited military and political risks but is still large enough to earn Canada kudos from allies and from its own citizens for being on the side of the angels.

However, the dangers of mission creep are pertinent for the United States, Britain and France. Washington and London have had modest success, at best, at nation building in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Paris has only fared a little better in its recent African adventures.

The unspoken truth about the Libyan action is that while, in the words of a U.S. admiral, it is designed "to deny (Gadhafi) the use of force against his own people," it is as much about ending Gadhafi’s ruthless, bombastic and unpredictable reign. That unspoken goal arises from previous opportunities that were squandered in Iraq where George Bush Sr. infamously decided to let Saddam Hussein continue killing his Shia countrymen in 1991 and three years later in Rwanda when then-president Bill Clinton dithered during the genocide there and eventually did nothing.

By joining this new coalition, albeit in a modest way, the Harper government has exposed the empty rhetoric of Canada’s small but often quoted community of peaceniks. They have argued that Afghanistan must be Canada’s last offensive military mission and that there would therefore be no justification for funding "pointy" multibillion-dollar projects such as the F-35 fighter jet and a new generation of warships.

At a time of shifting alliances and global economic realignment, the stance of Canada’s doves seems very dated. After all, large swathes of the world are unstable and likely to remain so for years to come.

It was therefore rather clever of the prime minister, on what may be the eve of an election, to have pledged CF-18s to the Libyan operation and to underscore the point by flying overseas to attend a conference of the willing. Conveniently, this totally unexpected mission for the aging CF-18s points out the future need for new fighter planes. After all, who knows how many more such situations Canada will get itself into as a good citizen of the world?

Often forgotten is that the process by which Canada has slowly regained its international footing was actually started by the Liberals, not the Conservatives. The Chretien government began the trend by ordering the army to Afghanistan. The Martin government went one step further by creating a combat mission in Kandahar. The Harper government followed this commitment by volunteering troops for a new Afghan training mission.

With a galloping economy and even better long-term economic prospects, Canada has interests to protect, friendships to nurture and responsibilities that must be met. It is impossible to predict where and when Canadian soldiers, sailors and air crews may be needed after Libya and Afghanistan, but there will surely be other such deployments in the future.

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